The executive responsible for partnerships evolves with a company's growth. According to Jon Mead, in early-stage organizations, the CRO or Head of Sales typically handles partnerships. As the company scales, this responsibility transitions to a dedicated Head of Partnerships who can build a specialized team.

The most effective partner marketing focuses on internal orchestration before external activation. The primary role is to align internal teams—sales, product, events—around a joint value proposition with the partner. Success hinges on making everyone's job easier and uniting them towards a shared 'North Star.'

When launching a new channel program, prioritize gathering direct feedback from top partners about their expectations. Use these insights to define the necessary internal team structure and skills required to support them, rather than building a team first and hoping it fits their needs.

Before launching any partner activity, define target customers, tactics, and follow-up processes with partners and internal teams. This pre-alignment is the key to achieving and proving ROI, moving beyond just tracking spend after the fact.

A year before launching a paid product, Fathom's CEO hired three top salespeople from his previous company. He tasked them with customer success roles to build deep product expertise and customer empathy. When it was time to sell, this pre-vetted, highly knowledgeable team was able to execute immediately without a learning curve.

Effective partner management requires viewing partners as an outsourced function for every department—marketing, sales, support, and delivery. To successfully enable a partner, you must first have a deep understanding of your own internal processes to transfer that knowledge and ensure quality delivery.

In startups and scale-ups, partnership leaders must be 'builders' who create ecosystems from scratch—defining customer profiles, finding early adopters, and even co-creating market demand. This is a distinct skillset from managing a pre-existing, mature channel with hundreds of established partners.

“Partner Lifetime Value” reframes partnerships as long-term assets, not transactional wins. Companies committing to consistent, long-run partnerships achieve superior growth and profitability, creating a force multiplier effect far beyond standard customer lifetime value.

Shift from a transactional view of partners to a long-term investment mindset. This "Partner Lifetime Value" approach, which treats partnerships like long-term assets, acts as a force multiplier for growth, leading to higher profitability and success.